An Unbalanced Loner With a Rifle

By SERGE SCHMEMANN

Published: January 2, 1997

JERUSALEM, Jan. 1—
When he squeezed off a dozen rounds from his M-16 rifle into the crowded Arab market in Hebron today, Pvt. Noam Friedman joined a small but notorious group of Jews who have turned to acts of desperate violence against a peace accord they believe is anathema for their people.

Like Yigal Amir, the 26-year-old religious nationalist who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995, Private Friedman wore the black skullcap of an Orthodox Jew and claimed religious justification for violence to block a deal with the Arabs.

Like Baruch Goldstein, a 37-year-old physician who massacred 29 Muslim Arabs at prayer in the tomb of the biblical patriarch Abraham in Hebron in February 1994, Private Friedman turned his hatred on Palestinians.

Yet Private Friedman, 22, was different in a critical way. Mr. Amir was a convicted religious nationalist who shaped his extremist ideology over years and plotted the assassination for months. And Dr. Goldstein was a devoted follower of the radical Rabbi Meir Kehane, and his feelings toward Arabs were common knowledge among his neighbors.

Noam Friedman emerged as unbalanced well before he entered the army.

Alesha Vishlitsky, a rabbi at the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva, an institution of Jewish religious study, said Private Friedman was expelled after less than a year.

''He was found to have signs of unusual behavior,'' Rabbi Vishlitsky said. ''There was this phenomenon that he started to talk of God revealing Himself to him and other delusions. He was advised to get emotional treatment. We're very surprised that he was recruited and given weapons.''

The question figured prominently today. In a report to be published on Thursday, the ultra-Orthodox daily Yom Hashishi says that before Private Friedman was recruited, a psychiatrist from Maale Adumim sent a report to the Israeli Army describing him as an unstable person with radical views, and recommended against his enlistment.

There was no response from the army, but both the army and the police announced that they were opening investigations.

Private Friedman joined the army seven months ago, serving as an all-purpose assistant in an administrative unit of the Central Command headquarters north of Jerusalem. It was a job that entailed neither visits to Hebron nor the use of a weapon, and he lived at home.

According to the police, Private Friedman failed to report to his unit today. Instead, he drove his car to the central bus depot in Jerusalem and boarded a bus for Hebron. His uniform and weapon would not have attracted any notice, since Israeli recruits, men and women, routinely walk the streets in uniform, carrying their weapons.

In Hebron, soldiers noticed him wandering near the Jewish enclaves in the center of town, finally stopping on a square that faces an Arab vegetable market. A scene of regular clashes, the square is heavily patrolled by the army.

After he began shooting, it was his own comrades who brought him down. As he was wrestled to the ground, Private Friedman struggled to keep his black skullcap on.Then the authorities hustled him off to detention in the nearby Jewish settlement of Qiryat Arba, and later to Jerusalem.

The police said he cooperated fully with officers. They said he was carrying three magazines of M-16 ammunition when he was arrested, and two more were found in his parked car.

A three-hour search of his home turned up more M-16 ammunition as well as 200 cartridges for use in pistols.

Police officers said Private Friedman told them he wanted to block the agreement on Hebron. On arrival at court for booking, Private Friedman repeatedly raised a clenched fist and said, ''Hebron now and forever'' -- the slogan of the Jewish settlers in Hebron.

Asked why he did what he did, he replied: ''Abraham bought the Cave of the Patriarchs for 400 shekels of silver. No one will return it.''

That, in summary, is the crucial biblical account on which the Hebron settlers and other Jews base their claim to the city and to the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

Private Friedman himself is also technically a settler, since his family home is in Maale Adumim, a large settlement east of Jerusalem. But Maale Adumim has always figured more as a comfortable suburb of Jerusalem than as an ideological claim to the West Bank.

''This is not like the Amir family at all,'' Mayor Benny Kashriel said, referring to the family of Mr. Rabin's killer. ''The family has been in Maale Adumim for years, not for ideological reasons, but for the quality of life, like 90 percent of the people here.''

Private Friedman's father, Shimshon, worked in the electric company, while his mother, Riva, worked in the Ministry of Education.

After several hours, Private Friedman's mother came out of her house and grimly read a brief statement. ''We condemn any form of violence, and we advocate a solution to the confluct between us and our Arab neighbors with peaceful means and with coexistence,'' she said. ''Since he is my son, I'll do what is expected of me. We express deep sorrow for the event, and we pray for the well-being of the wounded, and we participate in the great sorrow of their families.''

Some neighbors described Private Friedman as a normal youth. Others, however, spoke of his strange behavior, and especially of his isolation. One neighbor said he sometimes wandered off alone for long periods.

Rabbi Mordechai Elon, the principal of Horev Yeshiva, the religious high school that Private Friedman attended, said the young man's mental problems began to emerge during the last two years.

''He was not able to cope in any framework,'' the rabbi said, ''and there was something strange about him, something very strange.''

Several months ago, Rabbi Elon said, the suspect turned to him for help in leaving the Army. ''I told those who needed to know,'' he said.

Photo: An Israeli soldier identified as Lieut. Avi Buskila drags off Noam Friedman moments after he fired at Palestinians in Hebron. Private Friedman was characterized as a lonely man with psychological problems. (Reuters) Map of Israel showing location of Hebron. Map of Hebron showing location of the shooting.